How do i fix my external hardrive?

Hard drives typically aren’t worth fixing unless it’s a cable issue/usb issue. If you’re within the return policy to exchange it for another hard drive, I’d recommend it.

If it’s under warranty but outside the return policy, I’d give iomega an email or something describing what the problem is. and keep your fingers crossed that the drive isn’t defective.

If the hard drive is still good, and it’s just a connection issue. You could take apart the entire external hard drive to remove the hard drive within it. After removing the hard drive, you can try and attach it internally, or get another external enclosure for it.

I have a feeling that there’s important things on your hard drive so you won’t want to lose everything that’s on it. But, if you’re willing to lose all of the files that are on it you can format it by right clicking its icon in the Computer file and selecting “Format,” then follow the directions.

yeah the data is whats important for me. I just want to get my files off this disk and on to another. do you know what might be wrong or what might have happened that would make it not usable?

also it’s not under warranty

try using different USB ports, and try using another computer as well.

Also, if your on a PC and have access to a Mac, hook it up to the mac. Because Macs don’t care about the files PC’s use to determine file structure, they look at the drive anew and build their own. Then you could copy the info over to a functional hard drive.

If it isn’t spinning up put it in the refrigerator for a few hours then take it out. Let it warm up. That will sometimes loosen things up a bit.

what operating system is this may I ask??

yeah, inside that enclosure is a regular hard drive, so just get yourself an enclosure, you can get them at Best Buy. Take the drive out, stick it in there, and plug it in. if it doesn’t work, you should be able to return the enclosure no fee within two weeks anyway, so it’s worth a shot.

Hard drives go bad. It happens.
You can try plugging it into another computer to see if the same problem happens.
External USB drivers don’t need any special configuration on a PC. It just picks up.

In the worst case scenario that your hard drive has gone bad, there are data retrieval services around that can pull that data off the drive but those can get somewhat pricey.

yeah, if the drive is bad and you want to get the data off of it, don’t go to Best Buy. They’ll charge you $2000. Check around online, there are lots of places who can do that.

Seriously though, if you can swing the mac thing try it. It has worked for me more than once and it will do no harm to the info what so ever. You will save serious cash if it works.

@monsoon how did you come up with a 2,000 dollar bill?

It may just be a case of static buildup.

Mine stopped working about two weeks ago, so In unplugged it for about a week and it is working fine again. Of course, now I’m going to go out and buy another one to use as a non-connected backup of those files, just in case.

@RandomMrdan, I worked there for the past year. If the drive is actually failed and they can’t do it in-store (which they can’t if it’s failed, they just have a mule), you have to send it to Geek Squad City in Kentucky, I believe it is, and that bill starts at (okay, I exagerated) $1500, but gets upwards of $2500, so I was trying to average.

@monsoon ah yeah, I wasn’t sure if you were referring to data recovery from a failed hard drive, or that they would actually just nickle and dime you.

Yeah, their in-store data recovery is dumb, they just do what anyone could, take it out and plug it into a working computer. Not because the geeks are incompitent or anything, that’s just the limited scope of possibilities available in-store.